Damian Lewis says there is no secret to how he and his wife Helen McCrory juggle their acting careers with raising a family — they “just muddle along”.

The actor was speaking as his West End return was announced today. Lewis, who appeared in American Buffalo at Wyndham’s last year, will star in a new production of Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?

Lewis, 45, is based in north London with McCrory, 48, and their two children — daughter Manon, 10, and son Gulliver, eight.

The actor spoke exclusively to the Standard from New York, where he is filming the second series of Wall Street drama Billions.

Muddling along: Helen McCrory and Damian Lewis at the press night performance of The Deep Blue Sea – Source: Dave Benett

He said: “We just muddle along —there’s no formula. We take it week by week and month by month and day by day. It’s a great adventure. We’re always busy but it’s always fun. You just have to hope your kids don’t ask for a lot of expensive therapy when they’re 18!”

He said he and Peaky Blinders star McCrory, who most recently appeared on stage in a critically acclaimed production of The Deep Blue Sea at the National, give each other tips — but only a few. “We are quite careful about offering too much advice,” he said. “We do cautiously help each other out.”

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It was announced today that Lewis will take the role of Martin in The Goat, which is being revived at the Theatre Royal Haymarket next year. His character is a middle-aged architect whose family life crumbles when he falls in love with the animal of the title.

The star was in the audience for the London premiere of the Tony Award-winning play at the Almeida in 2004. Jonathan Pryce played Martin, opposite a young Eddie Redmayne.

Lewis  said: “It was one of the most fascinating nights I’ve ever had in a theatre. The play stayed with me. The absurd central premise is on the face of it ludicrous, and funny, and awful.

“But what emerges through the play is that it’s about different expressions of love and ideas of forbidden love.

“It speaks to the limitations of human imagination while at the same time asking the audience to believe in something they’ve never, I’m hoping, had to believe in before. That’s why the play is fascinating. It’s laceratingly funny, uncomfortable and daring. But in the end I think it’s a very serious and poignant play about relationships and our understanding of love.”

Ian Rickson will direct Lewis in the play, widely regarded as Albee’s late masterpiece. The American playwright, best known for Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, died last month at 88.

Lewis said: “I was really looking forward to meeting him and him seeing the show. But he sadly passed away. He was very fussy about who he gives the rights to his play to so we felt very lucky and want to do well by him.” Of his return to the London stage, he said: “I grew up going to the West End and I love the West End. I love the diversity of the audiences, I love the tradition that it comes from. I find it very beguiling. It can encompass all things and that’s why I love it. I’m excited.”

Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? will run at Theatre Royal Haymarket from March 24 to June 24 (thegoatplay.com/020 7930 8800)

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